Robert Stewart Smith, professor of Labor Economics, has been Associate Dean of Academic Affairs at the ILR School for fourteen years, and he has served three times as acting dean of the college (most recently this past spring). Though he keeps a low profile, Smith elicits an incredible amount of respect in the ILR School and in his field. He is a quiet, steady force that credits many of his accomplishments to chance and the will and assistance of his peers.

Originally an accounting major in college, Bob Smith had no thoughts of becoming a professor. He worked for a year as an auditor and then joined the Army as an ROTC “obligated volunteer,” where he was selected to teach accounting and was surprised to find he enjoyed teaching. This led to a post-Army M.A. in Teaching from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, followed by a year teaching at the high school from which he had graduated, Lakewood High School, just outside Los Angeles (a high school also attended by Dean Lawler!). Though looking forward to the teaching, Smith hadn’t counted on the discipline issues that come up when teaching a younger population, and he quickly explored options for teaching at the college level. He had done well in his undergrad courses in economics, so it seemed a natural progression to pursue a graduate degree in it at Stanford University. Originally intending to study economic development, he found labor economics—which was just then changing from an “institutional” approach to one more firmly rooted in economic theory—more interesting.

After receiving his Ph.D., Smith taught briefly at the University of Connecticut before taking leave to work with the Office of Evaluation for the Assistant Secretary for Policy, Evaluation, and Research, at the U.S. Department of Labor. He depicts his time there as almost like a post-doctorate position; it is where he developed his interest in policy research, and Smith describes his two years there—working with distinguished labor economists on leave from other universities—as his most formative years. Following his stint with the Department of Labor, Smith planned to return to U. Conn. when an opportunity to join the faculty at ILR “just came along.” The School of Industrial and Labor Relations offered an impressive set of resources and the promise of associating with accomplished colleagues and students. “It was an easy decision,” he says.

It was, apparently, a very good choice, as Smith has remained at ILR since coming in 1974. In fact, he has had a remarkably steady record, teaching the same core labor econ courses 240 and 540 (Economic Wages and Employment and Labor Economics, respectively) throughout the years, with a few exceptions. He’s had to cut back his teaching since taking on responsibilities as associate dean, a position he’s held since 1988. “My heart is with public policy,” he stresses, and that is one reason that he enjoys teaching LE240, a course that is based on the textbook he has co-authored with ILR Professor Ron Ehrenberg.

Modern Labor Economics: Theory and Practice has become the leading text in the labor economics field; in print for over 20 years, the eighth edition was released this summer. When writing it with Ehrenberg, Smith had no idea that it would become as influential as it has. “Our idea was to take the theory of labor economics and demonstrate to the reader how that theory can be applied to analyzing public policy in the labor market,” he explains. The text was one of the earliest of the “modern labor economics” genre, and the first to feature—as a centerpiece—applications of the theory to such policies as minimum wages, occupational safety, immigration, welfare and work incentives, payroll taxes, and so on. “What excited me was the chance to explain labor economics in a way that would be useful and interesting to others,” Smith says. This goal has been achieved many times over, and if the importance of the book had faded in his mind, Smith was reminded of it on a recent trip to China. Joining ILR faculty member Sarosh Kuruvilla on an invitation from the International Labor Organization to speak at Renmin University in Beijing, Smith was pleased to find out from Chinese labor economists that Modern Labor Economics had been translated into Chinese and has sold over 200,000 copies in China (one professor even quoted some sections by heart). “I was astounded... I didn’t even know there was a Chinese edition—and neither did our publisher!”

Smith’s research interests center on analyses of various labor market policies, particularly those relating to safety and health and workers’ compensation. His most recent project was a massive one that involved evaluating New York State’s pilot program using managed care for workers’ compensation, which tested whether managed care might control costs without sacrificing—or perhaps even improving—the quality of care. When the pilot program was created it was built into the agreement by the legislature that the ILR School, as an objective party, should conduct the evaluations, which Smith sees as an ideal implementation of the School’s land-grant mission. “I think this is exactly the way the School should be used; our objectivity and our skills in areas analyzing labor market issues are unquestionable.”

Luckily for the ILR community, Bob Smith continues to serve as a backbone of the School. When his services as associate dean or professor are not in demand, Smith enjoys reading, playing tennis, and watching baseball, including managing a rotisserie baseball team with his son (an MILR graduate). He and his wife, Alice, have five children spread around the world, and keeping up with them is an adventure in itself.

—ILR Connections, Winter 2003